Tonestyler VS BQMusic V12

[steve_rolfeca]

I’m old and debt-riddled. I’ve been curious about the Tonestyler for years, but the pricing puts me off.

Apparently there’s a European company called BQ Music that does a similar sort of device at a considerably lower price point. V12 and V12b versions.

I’m also curious about the different Tonestylers, as they seem to have fiddled with the formula over the years.

This would be going into a passive, 2-pickup Dingwall 5-string. I mostly play fingerstyle in pop, roots and blues settings, using nickel rounds and clean amp tones.

 

[drums1977]

Hi there, do you have link to that European company website? I've googled it but cannot find it.
I've got 2 tonestylers, 6 and 11 positions, installed in 2 Pbasses. They are amazing, all positions are usable and the middle ones make the mids pop out like crazy. You should watch the YouTube sample video with headphones on, it sounds exactly like that.

 

[drums1977]

Oh, found it.
BQmusic.nl

 

[steve_rolfeca]

I got a prompt response to my Facebook message. Apparently, their webstore is in dire need of updates, but Bas sells a lot through their Etsy store.

$47 CDN, which is probably about $8 USD, given the current state of the Canadian Peso...

Web:
BQmusic.nl

FB:
BQmusic

Etsy:
Invalid Link Removed

 

[drums1977]

I just sent the them an email to find out if there's any way of seeing/ listening to the thing in action. No reply yet.

 

[hondo4life]

I have never heard of BQ, but I put a 6-way Tonestyler pot in my Boomstick P-bass, and I love it.

 

[sikamikanico]

Another one to consider is Kellingsound on eBay, he’s US-based and imo priced well.

As far as I can tell, all these devices work similarly in principle. You typically have a 6-12 position rotary switch to select caps of different values, which cut highs at different levels (actually, they shift the resonant peak). Differences between models/makers are probably mostly in what value caps they use, what resistors (if any) they use to tweak the sound, and if they use a choke too (varitone style).

I’m sure I’m forgetting/missing something, but I’d just get what you think will work well for you.

 

[drums1977]

Anyone has had both the tonestyler and any of the other makers mentioned above to compare?

 

[40Hz]

If you’re really on a tight budget it doesn’t take much to wire up your own cap switcher. A rotary switch, a half dozen poly caps and a handful of 1/8W 10M resistors is all you need.